Review: VINCENT RIVER, Park Theatre

Recent drama school grad Thomas Mahy and seasoned pro Louise Jameson join together in this urgently needed revival of Philip Ridley's heartrending epic drama. Following the aftermath of a brutal killing, the piece provides a provocation as to whether or not hate crime is a thing of the past.

The short answer is that it definitely isn't, and the number of these kinds of attacks has risen by 20% just this last year alone. More specifically, hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people have increased by an alarming 80%. It is within this context that the play unfolds.

Gin, fags and unpacked storage boxes litter the stage. Anita has fled from her council flat in Bethnal Green, moving away from prying eyes and gossiping neighbours to a new abode in Dagenham. It's rather run down, messy and definitely claustrophobic, but at least it's different from her previous circumstances.

We meet her as she's tending to a young boy's black eye. She's soft in touch, but her dialogue is harsh and bitter. Anita pests Davey for information as to what happened to her son, Vincent. What we've been told already is that he was murdered in an attack not to long ago, simply because of the way a group of men thought he identified.

The papers have slandered him as a "queer", who performed "sordid acts" in a "notorious den of iniquity." Right from the off a negative image is painted of the deceased, but it's a viewpoint his mother can't ever seem to imagine. That's where Davey comes in.

She needs him to help her piece together Vincent's whereabouts that evening, but that'll mean that Davey has to reveal a lot about himself. Can he do that in order to help a grieving mother move on? Or will his personal shyness make it impossible for the pair to ever have an honest conversation?

Jameson harrowingly captures the uncontrollable and unbearable pain that the mother goes through, as she searches for these answers. Fighting the need to cry and to shout, she looks physically and mentally exhausted and it's clear just how much she's giving to the performance.

Both she and Mahy work terrifically well together. Jameson pokes and prods whilst he deflects and becomes defensive. They play an electric game of Ping-Pong; the ball being the raw emotion that's bounced back and forth between the two.

Alongside Ridley's text, Robert Chevara's production holds the audience in a tight grip for the entire 90-minutes. It deliberately never lets us relax, so that in the end when the penny finally drops you're left speechless - you sit there not knowing whether to clap, cry or crumble.

This is a rare piece of theatre. It's simply beautiful.

Vincent River at Park Theatre until 14 April

Photo credit: David Monteith-Hodge

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